Mr. Niall Behan:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to address it this afternoon. The Irish Family Planning Association, IFPA, welcomes the review of relationship and sexuality education undertaken by the joint committee. The IFPA is probably best known for its medical clinics and counselling centres but over many years we have been delivering sexuality education to young people, parents, teachers, youth workers and carers, among other groups. We currently provide a range of programmes, mainly to parenting groups through our Speakeasy programme, which is funded by the crisis pregnancy programme of the HSE. The other programmes we have run have generally been funded through once-off initiatives. They have been short-term projects with which we have been able to do some innovative things but we have always faced difficulties in our attempts to mainstream those projects. We have learned a lot from those projects.

As a reproductive healthcare provider we see in our clinics and counselling centres the impact of poor quality sexuality education at first hand. We see it every day. We see it in our pregnancy counselling centres with unintended pregnancies, in our clinics with sexually transmitted infections, and in our training workshops in the lack of understanding of the issues involved. The profound gender inequality present in the issues we see really sticks out for us. Women and girls largely bear the burden of inadequate sexuality education and are exposed to some of the risks I have mentioned already. For these reasons we are deeply concerned about the public health impact of inadequate, inconsistent and poor quality sexuality education, particularly in schools in Ireland.

As a reproductive healthcare providers we see in our clinics and counselling centres the impact of poor quality sexuality education first hand. We see it every day in our pregnancy counselling centres with unintended pregnancies, in our clinics with sexually transmitted infections, and in our training workshops with a lack of understanding of the issues involved. The profound gender inequality in the issues we see really sticks out for us. Women and girls largely bear the burden of inadequate sexuality education, and are exposed to some of the risks I have mentioned already. For these reasons we are deeply concerned about the public health impact of inadequate, inconsistent and poor quality sexuality education, particularly in schools in Ireland.

We have identified four areas for the committee that we believe should be focused on. The first area is the RSE curriculum and the need to broaden it. There seems to be a consensus that high-quality, comprehensive sexuality education facilitates the development of accurate and age-appropriate knowledge and attitudes and promotes positive values. It is seen as a good thing. It respects human rights, gender equality and diversity, and provides an important opportunity to reach young people with accurate information before they become sexually active, as well as offering a structured environment in which to learn. Real education only really happens if it is genuinely comprehensive, and we have some concerns that the RSE programme is not genuinely comprehensive. We believe the content of the RSE curriculum must be revised to reflect international best practice, particularly in terms of contraceptive use, sexually transmitted infections, information around abortion, sexuality orientation, pornography, consent, psycho-sexual issues and gender equality.

The second area that could be focused on is the status of sexuality education. It is very low at the moment; it does not have the status other subjects have. In many schools it is not a priority. Too often we see RSE as a subject to be left to the newest member of staff, and is usually squeezed in at the end of the school year. For some schools it is a box-ticking exercise, while for others it really is delivered properly. We believe there is a need for specialist knowledge and skills in RSE for teachers. The reason for its low status is that it is not considered as a criterion for recruitment or promotion. Many teachers would avoid the subject if possible. Teachers have already spoken about the discomfort they experience around the teaching of RSE.

The third area that could be improved is around capacity building for teachers and parents. Finally, we believe the Department of Education and Skills must take the lead in making sure that the RSE programme is monitored and evaluated properly and that quality assurance is integrated into the structures.